Effects of combination of antibiotics and electromagnetic fields on Staphylococcus aureus

Electromagnetic field treatment exerts its lethal effect primarily by producing pores in the cytoplasm membrane. And different antibiotics affect on bacteria are dissimilarly and their mechanism of action is different from each other. Researchers have shown that electromagnetic field treatment enhances wound healing. In the present work at first the effect of gentamicin, tetracycline, erythromycin and vancomycin on Staphylococcus oureus, has been studied by disk diffusion test. This bacterium causes a wide variety of suppurative disease in humans, including superficial and deep abscesses and wound infections. Gentamicin, tetracycline and erythromycin inhibit the protein synthesis and vancomycin inhibits the cell wall synthesis of sensitive bacteria. S. aureus was resistant to gentamicin, tetraciclin and erythromycin and susceptible to vancomycin.Then combined effect of electromagnetic fields of 12 G and the above-mentioned antibiotics on the growth of Staphylococcus aureus was studied. The result of analysis of sensitivity of S. aureus to the studied antibiotics after exposing to electromagnetic fields for different periods of time shows that these fields have no significant effect on the susceptibility of the bacterium against tetracycline, erythromycin, and vancomycin but affect the susceptibility pattern of the bacterium against gentamicin. Probably the combined effect of some antibiotics and electromagnetic fields can increase the wound healing.